Downloaded
by beyondthetower
Summary: After Ellie wakes up in a strange, white room, she is only aware of one thing: she has been downloaded. The world she's released into is odd and scary, but she can't shake the feeling that it all seems familiar, like she had been there before. If the little talking seal following her around claiming to be her "digimon" was right, this world needed her help. (Full Summary inside)
1. Chapter 1

After Ellie wakes up in a strange, white room, she is only aware of one thing: she has been downloaded. The world she's released into is odd and scary, but she can't shake the feeling that it all seems familiar, like she had been there before. If the little talking seal following her around claiming to be her "digimon" was right, this world that felt so much like home needed her help. When she meets up with her estranged childhood friends things start to get pieced back into place—the summer they fell into this world, meeting their digimon, becoming the digidestined. But this time they wouldn't be able to do it on their own. This time, they'd need the help of the other digidestined too.

* * *

Ellie opened her eyes to the blinding, florescent light above her. She felt the cold steal of the metal on her back, and tried to catcher bearings enough to sit herself up. From what she could see, the walls were washed in a generic white paint. There were no doors, no windows—just a small cramped room with one small table.

"Welcome, Ellie Waters. You have been successfully downloaded." The voice seemed to come from nowhere in particular. It floated up through the room from floor to ceiling, bouncing off corners and walls.

When the room stopped spinning she propped herself up onto her elbows, looking around and confirming that there was, in fact, nothing around her. Her pajamas from the night before were gone, replaced with fabric bandages that covered her chest and her bottom half like shorts. Her stomach was still pale white; her toe nails still painted green. _No scars,_ she thought. _At least there's no scars._ Everything, aside from her clothes, was how it was when she had drifted off the night before. So where exactly was she? And how was she supposed to get out?

A wave of panic set in then, once she realized the severity of the situation. There she was, stuck in some sort of prison cell, half naked and confused. She shot up right, scooting forward so her legs hung over the sides. She scrambled off the metal table until her feet touched the floor, and backed herself up as far as she could against the wall.

"Ellie Waters," the woman's voice repeated. "You have been successfully downloaded."

Downloaded? What was that supposed to mean?

There was a static kind of sound, and directly in the center of the metal table a stack of assorted things appeared. There was a pair of tight, blue jeans and a thin, dark red sweater, a black bra, some underwear and socks, a backpack and a pair of brown combat boots. As she stared at the sweater she realized how cold she was, the hair on her arms rose.

"Ellie Waters." It was that damn woman again. After she had listened carefully, she noticed how digital she sounded, computerized. She took awkward pauses between her words and annunciated things too precisely. "Please take the clothes that have been provided for you." Ellie stepped forward, reaching out and grazing her fingers against the thin wool. She pushed down a little harder, until her hand sunk into the fabric, leaving an indent and the perfectly neat stack. Then she looped her finger around one of the backpack straps and lifted it in front of her face, at eye level. It had all appeared like some sort of strange hologram, but it was real.

"Ellie Waters," the voice said again. "Please tale the clothes that have been provided for you."

"Geez," Ellie said. "I'm going, I'm going. Calm down." It was the first time she had heard herself speak in this weird, confined room, and her voice echoed so loudly that she made herself jump. Carefully, she unwrapped the bandages around her chest and hips, shivering at the cold, stale air. She quickly slipped on her underwear and clasped her bra, pulled the jeans up and buttoned them, threaded her arms through the sleeves and pushed her head through.

When she was tying up the laces of her boots the woman came over the invisible PA system again. Ellie jumped, and was sure she would never get used to that shrill feedback. "Ellie Waters, you are now ready to be uploaded into our system."

"Uploaded?" she asked, putting her foot back on the ground. "What are you even talking about?" It was a long shot that the computer lady could hear her, but Ellie was convinced that at this point weirder things had happened, and they just got worse. There was a shaking directly in front of her, coming from the wall, and after a second there was a crack. She lifted her hands up as a blinding light filled the room.

It took her eyes a second to adjust, and when they did she felt her sharp intake of breath. There were trees. Outside of this prison, where she had been "downloaded", there was just regular earth. No bars or barbed wire or a real life firewall—she wanted to laugh at her own mental joke but she was too freaked out. No, there was nothing that seemed to be confining anymore. She wasn't so sure what she was expecting, maybe some sort of videogame-type-climate. But wherever this place was, wherever _she_ was, it just looked like a forest.

Ellie stepped outside slowly, patting the ground with the front of her boot to make sure it was solid. It was. She walked out into the light, and it felt real. The warming sun felt real, the cool breeze felt real, the smell of the damp soil and the sound of the leaves rustling felt real. But there was something about the look of it all—the light, the soil, the trees—that didn't _look_ real.

She heard a door slide shut, and when she turned around the room was gone, nothing but her backpack lying in the dirt. With her hand held in front of her, she walked forward, hoping that for some weird reason she would hit solid brick, that just happened to be invisible or something. But there was nothing, just air.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked herself, hoping that somebody would be around to hear her. She took another look around; there were only trees, a few bushes, no people or animals anywhere in sight. She sighed, gripped the backpack strap and threw it over her shoulder. She looked to her left, to her right, picked the direction that called to her the most, and started walking.

The sun was starting to set, starting to sink down behind the weirdly shaped trees and dip down past the strange looking mountains that had come into view a few hours before.

Hours. Ellie had been walking for hours.

She stopped, defeated, and plopped down onto a rock sitting at the roots of a tree. Her head fell into her hands, sliding down from her forehead to her chin and back again, and she let out a long, sharp breath. There was a feeling in her stomach, she noticed, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Somewhere in there was a giant mix of things: fear, hunger, anxiety, But the weirdest thing, is that at the core of I tall, she felt this odd sense that she had been there before—that she was home.

Just as quickly as the thought had popped into her head it vanished, and her head jolted up when she heard a rustle in the bushes. It was just dark enough that the shadows seemed eerie, and the wind that brushed through the leaves was no longer calming but creepy. Instinctively, she shot up, her eyes glued to the blueberry-looking bush directly ahead of her.

"Man, what is with all of these twigs?" The voice cut through the silence, but despite her complete unawareness of who or what it was, she noticed her heartbeat was oddly calm. "I mean is it so much to ask for a little water? Maybe a river? A nice stream?"

Out from the bushes waddled a little sea-lion looking creature. It was mostly white, covered with a few swirls of purple fur, and a bright bushy head of orange hair—or I guess you'd call it hair at least. It had claws at the end of its flippers, and Ellie wondered what on earth a freaky looking seal was doing in the woods.

It looked up at her, and she noticed then that she had been so still and silent that she, in a way, had snuck up on it. It jumped back, yelling loudly. Ellie screamed too, struck by the fact that a sea lion was making human noises. The two of them took a second to calm down, and just stared. His green eyes stared her down with surprise and worry, until finally he smiled, and attacked.

"Ellie! Ellie! I can't believe it's you I can't believe I actually found you! I thought they were crazy saying that you would be back but you are! You are!"

She could barely hear the thing through her screams. As she ran around trying to pry it off of her, she realized that it wasn't clawing out her neck. It was hugging her. She stopped, and it was quiet, until it spoke again.

"I knew you would come back for me." This time it spoke in a softer voice, one filled with comfort and relief, and a little bit of sadness rang through it.

"Y-you talk," Ellie stuttered.

The thing pulled away, gripping her shoulders and holding on by his tail flippers, or feet, or whatever they were. "What are you talking about? Of course I talk." He jumped back down onto the ground and looked up at her. "And if I recall you _liked_ that about me. It's part of my charm, you said. That's what you told me."

"You're a seal. And you talk," she repeated, hoping that if she tried to piece it together out loud her brain would follow suit. It didn't. "You're a talking seal, oh my god that's it I've gone crazy. I've gone batshit insane and this whole place is some weird dream. Downloaded? I mean what was I thinking? No wonder none of this makes any sense I'm imagining this whole thing. Or dreaming. That's it! I'm still asleep. This is a dream. Ow!" Ellie ribbed at the red spot on her leg where the thing was standing with his claws close to her skin.

"Who are you calling a talking seal?" it asked.

"Did you just pinch me?" she yelled.

"Ellie, it's like you don't even recognize me." The little sad part of his voice seemed more prominent now.

She was silent, and just stared down at him with a questioned look.

"It's me, Elle. It's Gomamon."

"You're _who_ now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gomamon, or whatever it was calling itself, looked like it got slapped in the face. "Gomamon! Your digimon! You're telling me I spent all this time waiting for you to come back and you just forget about me?! What kind of monster are you?! What kind of _partner_ are you?! What kind of _friend_ are you?!" It kept going on in that same, loud voice for a while until Ellie finally cut it off.

"I'm sorry. _Friend_? _Partner?_ What are you even talking about?" she paused and looked away, back up at the sky, which was getting darker by the minute. "What am _I_ talking about?" she asked herself. "I'm talking to a seal. Get a grip, Elle, get a grip." She felt a painful knowing at her ankle and cried out. That thing was chewing on her now? What was its deal?

"Who are you calling a seal? I'm a digimon I'm not animal. We're a refined bunch." She shook it off.

"Oh refined?" She squatted down so she was more at eye level and tilted her head. "Says the weird talking fur ball that's chewing on my foot." Although every part of her common sense was screaming for her not to, she reached out and grabbed under its arms. The thing didn't struggle; it just hung there and looked at her, aggravated. "I should be way more freaked out," she told it. "Why am I not more freaked out?"

"Because, Ellie, you _know_ me. Duh." This thing had way too much attitude.

"Alright, alright, calm down." Ellie had to admit, something about it did seem familiar. "So what did you call yourself again?"

"Gomamon," it told her.

"Right. Gomamon then. You're some sort of, colorful, aquatic, digipet?"

Gomamon scoffed at her and started to squirm. "I am not pet, don't you dare. It's digimon. _Digimon._"

She dropped it back onto the ground and fell back onto her butt. "Okay geez! I'm sorry!" Her tailbone stung, and she rubbed it until the pain dulled. "So you're a digimon. Alright, I'll go with it." Her chin fell into her hands, and she stared at Gomamon. His eyes were big and green, and it looked at her like it knew everything about her. It was creepy.

"Digimon," Ellie repeated, her eyes still focused on the thing. She shook her head and closed her eyes, hoping that maybe it would shake her awake, but when she opened her eyes it was still staring up at her. She sighed in defeat, and her head dropped. Despite her fears, she felt that sudden pang of comfort again, and it only made her more nervous.


	2. Chapter 2

It was nightfall, and that thing was _still_ following her. Gomamon. She kept reminding herself to call it by its names. It got mad when she didn't. He. _He _got mad when she didn't. She also made the mistake of calling him "it" out loud, which sprung him into a long lecture about how rude she was for thinking he looked like a girl, and that she better learn to be a little nicer to her friends. God this thing talked a lot.

Ellie stopped short, her legs refusing to move another step. Gomamon was clearly too invested in his speech to notice she had stopped, and collided with her right leg.

"_Oof_," he mumbled. "Hey! What's the big idea?"

"I'm stopping," Ellie told him, as if that wasn't obvious enough. There was agitation in her voice. "What does it look like? I've been walking all day, and who knows what time it is. I'm tired and I'm lost and I'm aggravated and I'm-" Her voice grew louder, but she was cut off by her grumbling stomach and placed her hand over her shirt. "Hungry," she finished. "And I'm hungry."

She had spent the past few hours forgetting about the severity of the situation she was in, but it wasn't until she felt the pang of hunger in her stomach that she realized how bad it was. Ellie felt her body collapse, and she steadied herself on her feet and pulled her knees up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them, stuffed her face in the crook of her elbows, and she cried. For the first time all day, in this whole weird situation, with this whole "digimon" nonsense, she felt so unbelievably overwhelmed by all of it that she just broke down completely.

It was quiet at first. Gomamon didn't speak. There was nothing but the sound of crickets and other disembodied sounds, and Ellie's sharp intakes of breath. The moon was full, bright enough to light the way a little bit. So when Gomamon moved toward her she could just see his shadow wriggle forward.

"Ellie?" he said. "What's wrong?" His voice sounded shaky, concerned. When she didn't answer he went on. "If you're hungry I can get you food. We passed a bush of berries a few minutes back, I can run and go get a bunch, and they're really good. I swear. I would never lie to you about food; you know that-" he stopped himself. "Well I guess you _should_ know that, but you don't really remember right now, do you?" He sounded like he had finally come to terms with something he had been grappling with.

"I just want to go home," she said.

"D-don't cry." She felt a paw on her knee and peered through her fingers. He looked sad, empathetic even, and nuzzled his chin into her knees. "Please?" Something about the way he was looking at her made her feel a little less sad, and for a second she forgot about the whole thing.

She wiped her eyes, and placed her hand on Gomamon's head like he was some little dog. "Sorry," she said with a smile "Thanks."

He giggled, his eyes lighting up as he did, and bounced up and down a few times. "Any time! Now dinner. You mentioned dinner…" His voice trailed off as he turned into the woods, and when he disappeared behind some bushes Ellie stood up, calling for him to wait. But it was too late. He was long gone. Ellie sat back down, feeling the tears prick at her eyelashes again.

This situation really was the worst, but having Gomamon around, Ellie noticed, made it a little more bearable. She looked around again, took in the trees, the way the leaves looked in the moonlight—pink with little flex of silver, like curls of thinly shaved metal. In the distance, Ellie thought she heard a faint buzzing sound. A fly somewhere hidden in the branches.

She wondered where she would sleep that night, if there were any houses in this place or if she'd have to rough-it in a cave or under a tree or something. She was guessing probably the latter. She was snapped back to reality when she heard Gomamon's voice came back into earshot, and the bush rustled again. He emerged from the thick of the forest with a giant leaf covered in different colored berries. He dragged it over to her and pulled it in front of her.

"Ta-da," he sang, stretching his arms above his head. "I know it's not much, but it's something." He laughed at something going through his head. "There was this one time, when we hadn't eaten in two days, and you found a bush of these things and ate so many it made you sick. You barfed all over the place!" As soon as he was done talking he suddenly cut himself short, remembering that Ellie had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. He studied her face, but Ellie was too busy eating that she didn't even really notice his story.

"These are actually pretty good," she said, stuffing one more handful in her mouth. "Thanks, little man." She pushed a few toward his side of the leaf, and he stuck his claws into a few like a skewer.

"Eh, don't mention it," he said, his mouth full.

The buzzing sound swooped overhead again, and when Gomamon looked up toward the sky Ellie noticed his worried expression. "I heard that earlier," she told him. "When you were in the woods. It sounds like one big bug."

"That's no bug, that's a digimon," Gomamon said.

"You mean there are two of you?"

"Two?" He forced a laugh. "Try hundreds. Thousands even." He looked back up toward the sky like he was searching. "There's a bunch of us, all different with different evolutions and different personalities. No one is quite as charming as I am though," he giggled again.

"But that guy just sounds like a bug," I interrupted.

"That's because he's probably a bug digimon. It could be Kabuterimon, which would be a pleasant surprise, but if it's, like, a Kuwagamon than we should start running now."

Ellie paused, and pursed her lips. "I'm not even gonna try to pretend I know what you're talking about," she said. But as soon as she spoke the buzzing got louder, closer. Above them, a hint of red gleamed between the trees and cut out the light from the moon. "What does red mean?" I asked.

Gomamon looked up again. "Red means trouble," he said. "That's a typical rule of thumb." And Ellie had to agree. Wherever home was, that was usually the case too. As if on cue, the red came into view above them again, only this time it hovered. "Uh oh!" Gomamon called out. "He's seen us! Dinner's over Ellie, time to go." He pushed the rest of the berries aside and grabbed her hand, yanking her toward the mountains in the distance.

Ellie could feel her backpack hit her lower back as she ran, or sprinted rather, after Gomamon. As soon as they started running she heard a screech from behind her, and a giant, red bug came into view. The fear returned to her stomach, bubbling in bile, and she wished that short wave of calm was back. Gomamon stopped in front of her, and as she kept moving forward she fell flat on her face.

"Oi! What was that for?" she called out to him, pushing herself up with her hands.

"This isn't like us," he told her. "We need to stand and fight."

Ellie grabbed his little flipper thing. "No," she said. "We need to hide from the big, terrifying, monster." She pulled him behind a tree and tried to make herself small, and thin enough to be invisible behind the bark and moss. Kuwagamon, she thought that's what Gomamon called him, stopped a few trees down, clearly searching for any signs of life. She shuttered, feeling the fear drip down her spine. She heard the buzzing getting closer, until it was so close that she could feel her the wind blowing her hair into her eyes. Gomamon was still resting down by her feet, and just as she reached down to remind him to be quiet, he jumped out from behind the tree.

"Don't worry, Ellie!" Gomamon called to her. "I'll take care of this big, buzzing, buffoon."

Ellie's heart skipped at least two beats, and in that silence she felt shock, terror, and complete anger at that stupid little seal that said he was her friend. And here he was, jumping out in front of that beast, giving away their location. She went out on the limb of all limbs and trusted this Gomamon thing, and he was setting her up to die. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Get back here."

"Digimon don't back down from a fight!" he called back, his chest puffed up with pride.

"Well this digimon sure needs to shut the hell up before we die."

He didn't respond, he just growled at the weird, giant bug thing that had yet to hear us for some reason. Finally, it turned, and saw Gomamon standing there, waiting.

"Gomamon digivolve to!" Gomamon called out. He stood there, like he was expecting something to happen. He looked down at himself and shook his head. "Huh?" she heard him whisper to himself. That thing was getting closer, and Gomamon was still sitting there. "Gomamon digivolve to!" he tried again.

She yelled over the humming of the wings. "Get back her Gomamon." She felt this strange pang of worry for little guy. He might have been annoying, but he had stuck with her, even gotten her food.

The red bug was getting closer, and she could see the quick flash of fear on Gomamon's face. Something in her acted before her brain had any time to think it through. She leaped out from behind her tree and grabbed him under the arms, whisking him up into her chest. And she ran. Ellie couldn't ever remember running that fast in her entire nineteen years of life. Her feet hit the ground so hard and so fast that she was sure she would trip over something, but she didn't. Surprisingly she felt her pace speed up, stronger, more eager than ever to get out of that woods and find a cave or something.

The buzzing grew softer behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see if she had lost the bug yet. She hadn't. He was a ways off, slowed down by the branches of the trees, but he was still after them. Gomamon had been squirming and yelling to be put down so he could fight, but Ellie paid no attention. Soon she found herself breathing too heavy, her lungs constricted by her lack of stamina and overall athleticism. She took a sharp right around a tree that's trunk spiraled, and slowed to a stop. Between her huffs and puffs she could hear the digimon getting closer. She bent over and held her left knee, Gomamon still tucked under her right arm.

"Let me go," he yelled.

She shushed him. "Shut up. He'll find us." It was getting loud again. And the wind picked up. "What do we do? What do we do?"

And as if to answer her question, two arms jetted out from behind her and grabbed her, pulling her down into the depths of the soil, muffling her screams.


	3. Chapter 3

Ellie's body went stiff; she thought for sure that this would be the end of her. She was dead, and there was nothing she could do about it. Whoever it was, he had his hand gripped tightly on her mouth, so when she tried to scream the sound was too muffled to do any help. He had their other arm wrapped around her stomach, pulling her closer to him. She was sitting on his lap, both of their legs were in front of her, and she could see his dark jeans and gray, low-top converse.

"Stop screaming, Ellie." Her eyes shot open at the sound of her name. His whisper was harsh, and she could feel his hot breath on her ear. "Don't even move," he said. "Don't make any sound and he'll go away. Promise." For some reason, she could hear sincerity in his voice. She may not have known who it was that had partly kidnapped her, but she believed him when he made that promise.

Ellie stopped struggling, but wiggled her arms from under his and grabbed Gomamon, who looked like he was about to pounce on that giant bug again. He struggled underneath her to fight back, but the boy beneath her wrapped both of his arms around hers to help. Without his hand constricting her lips she could breathe again.

Kuwagamon was right behind them. They were hidden in a small ditch beneath a large tree. The roots grew down like bars protecting them from the outside world. The buzzing had stopped, and now the earth shook with slow, heavy footsteps. Ellie could hear her heart beating in her ears. The only comfort she took is that she could feel the boy's heart pulsing against her back, and it was beating just as fast.

After several minutes of silence, breaking branches, and footsteps, the buzzing started up again. It was so loud and powerful that Ellie screamed, but it got lost somewhere in all that noise. They waited in silence, until the hum of his wings grew softer and softer. When the silence fell back in around them she could hear just how loudly they were breathing. The guy let go of his grip on Gomamon, and his grip on her. She huffed, and puffed, and pushed herself out back into the open. The only sign that some giant bug monster had been there was the overturned dirt and the snapped branches that littered the ground.

Eventually she turned back toward the hidden ditch where she and her guardian angel had folded into, and she could see him on his hands and knees, crawling out into the world again. He was wearing a red plaid shirt that must have been missing some buttons. The bottoms of his gray pants were caked in mud, along with his shoes. When he climbed out and tried to brush the new layer of dirt off of his pants, his shaggy, blond hair hid his face from her for a second or two. It wasn't until he looked up that she realized who he was.

Reece had been friends with Elli since they were little—well, when they were little. In fact, she hadn't seen him in many years, at least a decade. He and his brother Oliver lived nearby, but Ellie rarely saw them around anymore. She and Oliver were the same age—both nineteen, in their second year of college—but even before that, when they were in classes together in high school, they rarely talked.

"How are you, are you hurt?" Reece hurried over to her and grabbed her upper arms. He looked her over, checking for any obvious injuries, and then his blue eyes met hers. "You okay?" he persisted.

"Um. Yes?" Ellie said slowly. The exchange was weird. For her at least. In fact, his sudden burst of concern seemed to be normal to him. In the distance, she heard someone call out for Reece, and both of their heads turned in the direction of the voice. Reece yelled out their location, and she could hear the leaf-crunching force of running feet. Someone came sliding down the dirt into the ditch. When the cloud of dust cleared Ellie could see another head of blond hair, only shorter, and outstretched arms.

He slid down in one fluid motion, leaning in on his hips and standing upright as soon as the soles of his shoes hit the leveled ground. "Ellie!" Oliver called, pulling her into a bear hug. "Thank god you're okay." She didn't return the hug; she just felt her face get hot at his out of place affection. If he noticed, he didn't seem to care. "You're okay, right?"

When she finally worked up the courage to speak she said, "Um, what are you doing?"

Oliver pulled away slowly, glancing at Reece quickly before looking back at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She paused. "I mean we haven't so much as said hello in years. I just don't get all the hugging. Is all."

The boys hesitated, nervously looking at each other again, like they were communicating telepathically. Oliver cleared his throat. "Well," he said, leaning back. "I was going to ask you about your memory next, but I guess that answers that question then doesn't it?"

After getting out of the ditch, Oliver and Reece explained that they had only been there for a few days longer than she had. They described the same things as she remembered, the white room, the computerized voice, the weird little monsters following them around. The only difference seemed to be the fact that all of those things seemed to roll off of their tongues like childhood stories, like the facts and details were normal.

They had been walking for maybe ten minutes when two more digimon-looking things ran toward them in the distance. They were about the same size, and looked like little, yellow reptiles. One looked more like a mini dinosaur, the other more like a lizard with a furry blue coat. The two of them ran toward the group with a wave, and both yelled to be heard over the other.

Reece and Oliver stopped, and Ellie followed suit. At first, as the digimon ran toward them, Ellie had a sudden burst of fear, and instinctively moved behind Reece, grabbing hold of his arm and peering over his shoulder. She may have been more used to them by now, but she still got a little nervous when they ran at her. It wasn't until they were a few feet away that Ellie noticed they were calling out for the boys.

Oliver squatted to the ground, his arms outstretched, and waited as the one with the fur ran into his arms. "There you are, Gabumon," he said with a smile. "We've been looking everywhere for the two of you."

Gabumon had a silver horn on his head, and long claws that looked like they could cut straight through rock. "We turned that Seadramon back there into fish food," he told Oliver, his voice low and slow.

"Yeah," the other digimon said. "He shouldn't be bothering you guys anymore."

Reece patted the little yellow guy on the back. "You're the best, Agumon," he said. "We knew you could do it."

Agumon crossed his arms and rolled his big, blue eyes. "Oh yeah? Is that why you guys ran away?"

"We didn't run away," Reece defended. He threw his hands up and walked back over toward Ellie, wrapping one arm around her shoulder. She noticed how much taller he was now that he was older, and felt a tug at the back of her brain, like a memory was trying to escape. "We just wanted to make sure that we found Ellie here to protect her from any harm. Which we did marvelously by the way." He squeezed her into his side and smiled this big, heroic smile.

"Just look at that crest of courage glow," the Gabumon thing said. It must have been a joke, because everyone laughed. Ellie didn't get the reference, but she figured she'd let it slide.

"Gomamon!" Agumon said when Gomamon waddled out from behind Ellie's leg. They ran up to each other and hugged like old friends.

"It's good to see you again, guys," Gomamon said. "I sure did miss all of you."

"And we missed you, buddy," Reece said. "But now that we found her, we should get back to the others right? It's late, and the gang's probably really worried about us."

Ellie looked up at Reece, puzzled, who much to her dismay still had his arm around her. She wondered why he wasn't extremely uncomfortable about this. "Others?" she asked.

He looked down at her, confused at to what, exactly, she was asking. Then his face perked up, like he had suddenly remembered something very important. "Oh!" he said. "Right, you don't remember still." She was getting sick of all of this memory talk. "The others—Piper, Seth, Zach and Jonah—they're here too."

Ellie's face lit up at her brother's name. "Jonah?" she asked. "Jonah's here?" Finally, some normalcy around here.

Oliver nodded at her and threw his thumb over his shoulder. "Yup. Camp's about a mile that way. If we start running now we'll make it by curfew."

"Curfew?" More importantly, more running?

He shrugged. "It was your brother's idea. He's the oldest, so he's the leader. And you know how he gets."

Of course she knew, she grew up with him. But it struck her as weird that he was acting like he knew him that well. She wanted to ask more questions: Why was he a leader? And for what? Where were they? Why was everything all futuristic looking? Why was everyone so damn calm about all of this? Before she got a chance to open her mouth she became suddenly aware of the growing, throbbing in her ankle. They started toward the direction Oliver had pointed, but before they picked up into a run Ellie stopped them.

"Wait," she said. "I think I lied earlier about not being hurt." Everyone stopped to look at her. "My ankle hurts a little." She tried to push down on it but the ache got worse. She took a breath through her teeth. Reece, who was still beside her, reached his arm out to grab her incase she fell. "I don't think I can run. Nor do I want to, really."

Oliver rolled his eyes and smiled. "Typical Ellie." He folded his arms over his chest. "The laziest girl I know."

Reece walked in front of her and squatted down. "The laziest, but also the prettiest."

She blushed.

The two of them looked at each other, and although she could only see Oliver's face she assumed they both had the same joking smile on their face. "Come on," Reece continued. "Jump on."

Ellie hesitated, but soon she laced her legs through Reece's arms and held onto his neck. "Are you sure you can run like this?" she asked.

Reece forced a single laugh. "The faith you have in me, Elle. Really, it's astonishing." Again with the tugging. There was something about them, something that was off about what she thought she remembered. It was like the memories that were planted were fake, like she _did_ know them better than she thought. "You ready to rock this thing?"

Ellie looked down, and decided that while these feelings of hers were strange, she was going to run with it. "Only if you take back the thing about me being lazy." She smiled. "You can keep the pretty part though."

Reece laughed again. "You got it," he agreed. "Now let's get back before something else attacks us."


	4. Chapter 4

When they got close to camp they slowed down into a walk. Ellie insisted that she could walk from there, but Reece wouldn't have it. Despite his panting breaths, he hoisted her higher up on his back and kept moving up the slight hill. As they walked, they had explained to her that they all found each other a few days ago. Jonah ran into Seth earlier that week, just like the two of them had. Then one night, Oliver and Reece tripped over Jonah and Seth by the river, where they had set up camp. They had walked together for a few days before they came across the clearing they were headed to. It was the perfect campsite, right next to a stream for water, with a nice barrier of trees for protection. There was room for a fire and sleeping, and was pushed away from the beaten path for privacy. The only weird thing was the large oak table that sat in the middle of the grass, with sixteen chairs around it. They set up their camp within 24 hours—fire pit, sleeping arrangements, a chore system. It wasn't until the next night that Piper and Zach wandered in.

Their memories, Oliver said, took a little longer to return. There were things that were erased, and once they got together they started to be pieced back together again. Hers would be too, he promised her. It would just take some time.

When the ground leveled out Ellie could see what they were talking about, there was a few yards of just grass, and at the opposite side of the meadow was a stream, babbling up against the rocks and dirt. The table was in the middle, and at the head was Jonah, his brown hair cut short, his elbows on the table. He was leaning forward, listening to something Seth was saying. Beside them, each had their own digimon. None of them looked the same, they were all different sizes and colors. The one sitting around Jonah's neck looked like a little stuffed bunny with really long ears.

Reece squatted to the ground again to let Ellie off, and when her foot hit the floor she felt a little twinge of pain again. It wasn't as tender as before. "How's it feel?" Reece asked quietly, keeping his hand steadied on her back. Ellie just nodded and smiled.

"Oi!" Oliver called. "We're back!"

The whole group turned around. "It's about damn time!" Jonah called back to him, a tinge of anger in his voice. "What the hell were you doing out there? You know when curfew is. You now how important it is to be back by then." The nastiness in his voice surprised her. Even as the older brother, he was never anything but sweet. They'd fight occasionally, but he was never one to play the controlling-dad in any situation. And now, it was all she could see.

They had all gotten closer, Jonah in front, digimon following closely behind. Gomamon jumped out from behind Ellie. He had been so quiet on the trip that she almost forgot he was there. Something in the back of her head noticed that his silence was something out of the ordinary. He ran up over to the digimon, laughing about how excited he was to see them, and a few of them laughed and tackled him to the ground.

Jonah stopped as he ran passed him. He followed Gomamon with his eyes, confused. "Is that…?"

Oliver stepped aside, and Ellie had realized she had been too focused on Gomamon to fully realize she was back with her brother. She looked up, and their eyes met. "Yeah, don't thank us for finding your sister or anything," Oliver said. "Just keep on yelling at us, it's no big deal."

Jonah didn't respond, he just pushed Oliver aside and ran right toward Ellie, his arms open wide. "Aw man, Ellie," he said, his tone back to the typical, cheery tone she remembered. He hugged her so tightly that her feet came up off the ground. "We've been worried sick. How long have you been out there?"

"Just a day," she said, smiling. He was squeezing all of the air from her lungs. While she had been sort of relived when she ran into Oliver and Reece, she realized that she never truly felt safe until she saw Jonah. Something about big brothers, she guessed.

"We found her and Gomamon being bugged by Kuwagamon," Oliver explained.

"Pun _totally_ intended," Reece added. "We got held up by a Seadramon on the way there, so Agumon and Gabumon defended our honor like real champs while we ran like babies." He reached down to Agumon and pulled him into his side, winking at him.

"I didn't want to abandon them, but Reece was intent on following..." he looked back at him. "What was it again?"

"My friendship senses," Reece clarified in a nonchalant tone. "They were tingling."

Jonah ignored the brothers' banter and wrapped his arm around Ellie's shoulder. "Well whatever happened, who cares. As long as she's with us she's safe." Then to her she said, "Come on, let's get you cleaned up and get you to bed. We'll explain everything we can in the morning, deal?"

After a decent meal of bland cooked fish and some steamed mushrooms, Agumon ran up and said he heated up some water for a bath. Reece explained he had some sort fire-breathing trick, and it came in handy more often than not. Piper had showed her to the spot back in the woods where the make-shift tub was hidden—behind a cover of trees but not too far from camp. She showed Ellie a trick with these red berries that smelled like really good body wash, and told her that she'd fetch her some of the clothes she probably had in her backpack.

About an hour later she joined at the west side of the camp, where they had built a fire and rolled out some blankets. She took the only open spot in between Seth and Piper, and pulled her knees to her chest. Piper's long, blond hair fell over her shoulder as she pulled it into a braid over her right shoulder. Despite the dim light, Ellie could still see how blue her eyes were. "These backpacks they gave us have almost everything we need to survive," she explained, wrapping the elastic around her tips. Ellie noticed how pretty she looked now that she was older. Piper was two years ahead of her in school, and should have been graduating college soon.

"Everything except bug spray, so watch for mosquitoes." Seth snuck up behind Ellie and made her jump a little. He was sitting down and pulling the wool blanket over himself and smiling at her. His dark skin glowed in flickers as the fire snapped and crackled. Seth had been best friends with Jonah, practically since birth. He lived a few houses down from them, and was basically part of the family. Despite the uneasiness with the rest of the group, she found herself smiling warmly at the familiarity of him.

Everyone sat in a circle under their blankets, and when Jonah finally joined them they all looked at him, as if it was a habit. "Well it is ridiculously late, and we are all dead tired. So we can wake up whenever tomorrow." He glanced over at her and smiled. "Now that my sisters back, now that we're _all_ back together, we don't have to worry about a schedule so much. So tomorrow, we relax. And start to think of what to do next." There was a murmur of happy noises and a few claps. Jonah pulled the blankets over his stomach and leaned back on his elbows. "See you all in the morning." And with the chorus of "goodnights" they settled into the comfortable silence of sleep.

The night passed by quickly. Ellie thought that it would be tricky to fall asleep, but she realized when she blinked her eyes at the sunlight that she had been out for hours. She sat up and stretched out her back. At some point in the night, Gomamon had snuggled up against her legs like a cat, and was still sound asleep. She was the last one to wake up, evident by the lack of blankets around the fire. Without thinking she reached down and pet Gomamon, who made a tiny groaning noise before opening his eyes.

"Moring," he grumbled. "I'm hungry." Of course that's all he could think about first thing in the morning.

Ellie laughed. "Yeah. Me too." She watched as he pushed the blankets away with his claws, and she wondered why it was that she felt so comfortable with him now. It had only been a day after all, but she felt like she really _knew_ him. "You know what?" She picked him up under the arms and placed him on her lap.

Gomamon just looked at her, quizzically.

"I feel a lot better today," she admitted. "I mean, things don't seem so scary and weird. I still don't really get it all, but all of these strange things you've been talking about make a little more sense today. I can't put my finger on it." She looked up toward the sky and smiled as the sunlight soaked into her skin.

Gomamon was smiling up at her. "Really?" he asked with excitement in his voice. He pounced up and down, landing in soft _thuds_ on her thighs. "Oh good! You know, you were making me real nervous before. I was beginning to think you were a fake."

She laughed again. "Well I'm not one hundred percent sure I'm not," she admitted. "But if you're willing to wait it out then so am I." Ellie was overcome by her sudden connection to this little guy. It wasn't like one she had felt before, it wasn't like he was a friend or a sibling, it was much more powerful than that. She shook her head out of her daydream when Gomamon nodded and said that he was more than willing to wait. "So how about some breakfast?" she asked as she stood up and turned toward the table, where the rest of the group was sitting.

They had only just started eating when the two of them sat down beside Zach and his digimon. _Palmon_. The name came into her head like a telepathic signal. She tried to shake it off, but when she looked down at the little, green, flower looking digimon, the name just seemed to fit. Zack mumbled a "morning" and passed her a bowl of mixed berries and a glass of water. She took it, thankful for the food, and ate with him in silence.

The rest of the group had been done eating, and were clearing out the dishes and scraps when she started at her meal. Zach must have been the last one up besides her. He had smooth, pale skin that was only disrupted by a handful of freckles that were scattered across his face. His dark green eyes were focused on his plate as he pushed it around with his fork. Ellie thought back to her early friendship with Zach, much like she had with Oliver and Reece. But no matter how hard she thought she couldn't remember one. She didn't remember meeting him, or a childhood with him in it. In fact, she didn't really remember him much at all. She knew his name, of course, and what he looked like. In fact, she was pretty sure if she could draw and was asked to draw him from memory she probably could. But the only thing that popped into her brain was walking with him in silence, somewhere in the woods, somewhere that looked like this place.

"So how are you feeling?" Jonah had taken the seat to her right and turned sideways to face her. Behind him, Ellie could see the digimon playing around in the grass. Gomamon was running over, and she noticed the food she had given to him was gone.

"Better," Ellie said, looking back at him. She wasn't sure what else he was looking for, so she left it at that.

"How are your memories?"

She shrugged. "Pretty much the same. Things seem a little different now, I guess. But it's mostly just, like, I feel more comfortable here."

Jonah smiled at her. "Good," he said. "That's a start. Today's going to be a lot like that. You're gonna get them back in bits in pieces, but in a few days they'll all be back." Jonah looked a lot less stern than he had the night before. He looked less like a leader and more like her brother. She was thankful for that.

"Do you have all of yours back?" she asked him after a pause.

He nodded and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "I think so. I remember everything about this place. I remember Terriermon. I remember everyone here." Ellie's face dropped, and when Jonah noticed he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry. It'll all come back soon."

Ellie's head was spinning with thousands of questions, but she reached in and picked one out to start with. "So we've been here before," she clarified, going off of his own memories. "Gomamon keeps talking like we have, like we've met before. But I don't remember any of that."

Jonah paused, taking a second to collect his thoughts. It was like he knew the answer but was thinking of how to word it. "Do you think we have?"

The question aggravated her, but he had a good point. She knew the answer. The answer was yes, they had. She couldn't remember it, but she could _feel _it. She could feel that she had been close with Gomamon, with Reece and Oliver, with all of them. That was what annoyed her the most, she thought. That she could feel the truth of it in her bones but couldn't place facts with it.

Jonah took her silence as a yes, and pushed off of her shoulder to stand. "Don't worry," he said. "It's just going to take some time."

Ellie leaned back in her seat. "Can't you just tell me and get it over with?" she whined. Her brother was already off in the distance, heading toward the campfire, but she could still hear his booming laugh.

"No way, sis. Who knows what it would do to your little brain. It could implode or something. I'm not risking that."

Ellie lifted her head, and when she turned she noticed the smile on Zach's face. His eyes were still focused on his food, but she could still see the corners of his mouth turned upward. Before she could think through what she was going to say, Ellie spoke. "What are you smiling at?" she joked.

Zach let out the slightest hum of laughter and paused, before going back to his breakfast. "Just good to have you back," he told her, his voice quiet. Ellie had almost forgotten what it sounded like until then. "It's gonna be one hell of a day."


End file.
